“The state of Israel has yet to recover from Ehud Barak’ short but failed term as a leader, and here he is threatening to replace the government,” he added. “This is like a pyromaniac who set a large fire and now goes around offering advice on how to put it out.”

Taking another jab, Ariel continued acerbically: “If Ehud Barak is motivated by concern for Israel’s future, and not by the chase for a newspaper headline, why did he not vie in the elections with his friends at the Atzmaut party?”

Barak's Atzmaut (Independence) party broke away from the Labor party and ran during the 2013 general elections – but failed to garner enough votes to enter the Knesset, marking a humble end to the former PM's political career.

“A fanatical nucleus of radical ideology has taken over the Likud,” Barak said earlier Tuesday, “by taking advantages of loopholes in the party’s constitution regarding primaries, and ‘cleansed’ Likud’s leadership of all those who valued democratic values more than populism or a temporary accomplishment.”

"In the face of Islamist terror worldwide," he accused, "Netanyahu’s government is mired in pessimism, passiveness, stress and a victim’s mindset. This is the complete opposite of the Zionist ethos, the crux of which was and continues to be, taking our destiny in our own hands."